masslive.com/news offers real-time news, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from The Republican newsroom and MassLive.com staff.

Billboard attacks gay marriage vote

Saturday, October 06, 2007

By DAN RING

dring@repub.com

BOSTON - A New Jersey group yesterday unveiled a massive
billboard in Springfield that compares a local legislator to
Judas Iscariot and Benedict Arnold for switching his vote on
gay marriage.

Called "Betrayed," the billboard, posted on
Interstate 91 near the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of
Fame, targets state Rep. Angelo J. Puppolo Jr., a freshman
Democrat from Springfield.

Puppolo changed his position on gay marriage and voted
"no" to placing a question on next year's
statewide ballot that sought to amend the state constitution
to ban same-sex unions, legal in Massachusetts since May
2004. During the campaign last year, Puppolo said he would
support the ballot question.

"Tactics like this reinforce my belief that I did the
right thing," Puppolo said. "I voted to keep
discrimination off the ballot and out of the Massachusetts
constitution."

Puppolo said the billboard is hateful and offensive.

Brian S. Brown, director of the newly created National
Organization for Marriage, of Princeton, N.J., which
financed the billboard, said yesterday Puppolo betrayed
marriage and the public trust.

The billboard is an effort to highlight Puppolo's vote
and educate the public, said Brown, former executive
director of the Family Institute of Connecticut.

"If Angelo Puppolo is whining about this being
hateful, that's over the top," Brown said.
"Come on. He's a big boy. He's a
legislator."

During a June 14 joint session of the state Legislature,
the proposed question fell five votes short of the 50 it
needed to appear on the ballot.

Brown said his group will post billboards or take other
measures against 10 other state legislators who changed
their votes or stated positions - including Sen. Gale D.
Candaras, D-Wilbraham - and opposed the proposed amendment
on June 14. The group launched a Web site to announce a
billboard campaign across Massachusetts.

Brown called Puppolo one of the most "egregious examples" of a legislator who changed his mind on gay marriage. He wouldn't comment on the billboard's cost or how long it will stay up....